Earring clamp



April 16,' 1957 BAZNER 2,788,559

EARRING CLAMP Filed Jan. '26, 1955 mmvioa Eu gene Bozner ATTORNEY EARRING CLAMP Eugene Bazner, Providence, R. I.

Application January 26, 1955, Serial No. 484,248

2 Claims. (Cl. 24-248) My present invention relates to the jewelry art. and more particularly to a novel construction of earring clamps.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an earring support of the clamp type which will eliminate the use of screws.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a friction type earring clamp which can be readily stamped from a minimum number of parts.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an earring clamp which can be adjusted by the wearer to the proper degree of tightness and which will remain releasably fixed in the adjusted position.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an earring clamp which is simplein construction and easy and economical to manufacture and assemble.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view. my invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts, more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and more particularly defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an earring clamp embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 2-2 on Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 with the clamp being adjusted.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the blank for forming one of the clamp parts.

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the blank for forming the outer clamp part.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the fixed part formed from the blank shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the other part formed from the blank shown in Fig. 5.

1n the jewelry art the most conventional way of mounting an earring is by suppling a U-shaped member with a screw to clamp the ear lobe. Such devices are unsatisfactory because the threads are inadequate to keep the screw in tightened position. Attempts have been made to replace this member with various types of clamps operated by springs or friction. However, these have also had their defects in that they quickly loosened. The present invention is designed to provide an earring clamp with suificient friction surface to provide positive locking action over a long period of time.

The clamp of the present invention essentially comprises two clamp members pivoted to each other and having frictionally engageable side walls to hold the members in any adjusted position. One of the features of the invention is that the friction locking means is positioned a remote distance from the point of pivot so as to in crease the locking action and decrease the danger of the device loosening accidentally. This is an improvement over other friction types where friction is developed at the pivot and where a slight pressure at the ends of the clamp is suflicient to overcome the friction because of ited States Patent 0 the leverage. In this construction shown herein the points of greatest leverage.

friction grip is provided at the remote from the pivot.

Referring more in detail to the drawings embodying my invention, the clamp 10 comprises two members 11 and 12 pivoted to each other at 13. The free ends of the members 11 and 12 form clamping surfaces for squeez-j ing on to the lobe of the ear. In accordance with the present invention, the frictional engagement between the members 11 and 12 is accomplished along the arcuate body portions as remotely as possible from the pivot point 13. This is accomplished by providing the outer surface of the member 11 with a series of serrations or teeth and; the inner surface of the overlapping member 12 with one 1 free end with an enlarged head portion .16 which forms one side of the clamping member. The portion 14 is also partiallypushed out or embossed as at 17 to give the member rigidity. integrally formed on each side of the member 14 are a pair of ear portions 18 having openings 19 therein. j

The curved members 15 taper towards the ends 20 and are provided with plurality of teeth or serrations 21. The outer edges 22 are turned at right angles: to form a thin edge wall for the purpose of adding rigidity; to member .15. a a i In forming the member 11 the members 15 are bent towards each other as shown in Fig. 6 until the tips 20 are brought together and the wings 15 are in spaced parallel relation. The ear portions 18 are also bent uipwardly into spaced parallel relation. The openings 19 accommodate the pivot members and form the pivot portion 13. The embossed portion 17 is forced inwardly as at 23 to form a rib extending between the openings 19 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. This is done after the assembly of the parts to lock the parts in pivoted position. The member 11 forms the portion of the clamp on the ear lobe in front of the ear and the ornamental pieces of the earring may be soldered or attached to it. If desired an integral loop 24 may be stamped from the central arm 14 as shown in Fig. 6 for facilitating such an assembly. The embossed portion 17 thus serves the dual purpose of adding strength and rigidity to the portion 14 and forming the locking member 23 for the assembly.

The member 12 is formed as shown in Figs. 5 and 7. The blank is first stamped out as shown in Fig. 5 with a central rounded portion 25 having a raised gripping portion 26 and integral wing portions 27 terminating in narrow tips 28. The wing portions 27 may be provided with one or more elongated detents or serrations 29 spaced along the surface thereof and adapted to mesh with the serrations 21. The wing portions 27 are then folded into spaced parallel relation as shown in Fig. 7 and the beaded edges 34 are formed to add rigidity to the member 12. The slender tipped portions 28 are bent at right angles to form pivots 31. In assembly the member 11 is adapted to fit inside of the member 12. However, in order to insure proper operation of the device it will be noted that the tip of the member 12 carrying the pivot members 31 extends into the inside of the member 11 so that the two members overlap each other. The pivot members 31 are then extended through the openings 19 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 and the portion 23 struck inwardly to lock the pivot members in place. With the parts so assembled the detent or serrations 29 will ride over the serrations 21 to form a ratchet connection between the two members at points remote from the pivot points 13. The rigidity Patented Apr. 1 6,. 1 957.

of the two members serve to lock the clamp resiliently into the adjusted position.

For example, referring to Fig. 2 the detent or serrations 29 will lock in position into the adjacent serrations 21. When an adjustment is being made and the members are movedrelative to each other the serrations 29 must ride over the high points of the serrations 21 as shown in Fig. 3. This requires the spaced wings of the member 12 to spread slightly resisted by the beaded edges 30 and it requires the spaced wings of the member 11 to squeeze inwardly slightly against the resistance of the beaded edges 22. A snap action is therefore provided at each serration and the clamp will lock into the desired position. With the above construction the clamp will not loosen accidentally and will not fall from the ear lobe until a positive force is applied to the top of the members to spread them apart.

The distance from the pivot point 13 to the point of locking is always substantially equal to the distance from the pivot 13 to the center of the pad 26. This means that the movement of the ratchet will be translated to an equal movement of the clamping pad and will permit many different locking positions to suit the respective ear lobe.

The construction of the present invention permits easy and economical manufacture and assembly, yet providing a strong gripping action by transferring the friction or ratchet adjustment at a point remote from the pivot. Also, by having the parts intertwined with the outside piece swing toward the inside and the inside piece swinging toward the outside a close fit between the ratchet parts is obtained. Other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. An earring clamp comprising a base member having an elongated straight base portion, a pair of spaced integral pivot ears extending from the side edges of the base portion intermediate its ends, and an arcuate ratchet portion extending integrally from one end of said base portion, said ratchet portion having resilient corrugated walls, and an arcuate clamping member pivoted inside of said ears and extending over said ratchet portion, said clamping portion having detents engaging with said corrugations.

2. An earring clamp comprising a substantially J- shaped base member having an elongated substantially straight base portion provided at one end with a clamping surface, a resilient arcuate portion extending integrally from the other end of the base portion, an arcuate ciamping member having spaced apart walls extending over the arcuate portion, said walls being connected at one of their ends by a clamping element disposed complemental to the clamping surface to engage therewith on an ear lobe, means pivotally securing the other ends of the walls in the base portion intermediate the ends there of, said walls having reinforced side edges and c0operat ing friction clamping means between the arcuate portion and the walls of the clamping member to retain said clamping member in manually adjusted positions relative to the base portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,008,382 Bennett July 16, 1935 2,013,760 McSoley Sept. 10, 1935 2,389,481 Bazner Nov. 20, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS 803,890 France July 20, 1936 

